The Valleys 100

Any questions you want to ask or issues you want to discuss on any aspect of the Valleys 100, please raise them on the Valleys 100 forum.

Welcome to the website of ‘The Valleys Hundred’. The South Wales group of the Long Distance Walkers Association (LDWA) is proud to have been given the honour of hosting the annual hundred mile walk during the weekend of 24th – 26th May 2014. This website will provide prospective entrants with information about the route, together with images that will ensure that you enjoy a visual feast of our area.

The concept of the route was very simple. The South Wales group of the LDWA has a wonderful area in which to go walking. We have the beautiful Wye Valley and thousands of acres within the Brecon Beacons National Park. But, we also have the South Wales valleys, and we as a local group often avoid the better known areas in order to enjoy the beauty that the South Wales valleys offers. We know that our chosen route will surprise and enthuse many of you who would never ever have considered going walking in this little known but scenically beautiful area.

The South Wales Valleys area has been shaped by man over many centuries, but never more than the last 200 years due to the discovery of firstly iron ore and then coal. Once, the area could be rightly described as an industrial area, but perhaps not now. With the exception of a few, all the spoil tips have been removed or landscaped. Indeed, there is now pressure to protect certain spoil tips, to protect our heritage, something that would have been unthinkable 50 years ago. Our route will take you to places of exquisite beauty with far reaching views never far away. We will take you to former mining villages where you will see the rows and rows of terraced houses clinging to the hillsides that epitomise the architecture of the previous two centuries. We will take you to ridges where you will have only larks, buzzards and red kites for company. We will take you through woodland and forestry where the sound of silence dominates. But most importantly, we will introduce you to an area that we love, that we call our home and an area that we wish to share with you on your 100 mile journey around the South Wales valleys.

Click here for an overview of the route.